November 2007 Archive

Brian Kennedy’s Irish sea at the Ice Box

Brian Kennedy, Passage, detail, installation at the Ice Box, boats, salt Thanks be to the National Lottery for helping Belfast artist Brian Kennedy to bring his installation, Passage, to the Ice Box. Kennedy and the lovely catalog for Passage was also supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (which gets part of its funding from the lottery) and Kennedy’s gallery, the Golden Thread Gallery, I’m not quite sure how Kennedy came to the Ice Box, but he approached them, and they said sure, and no one here believed it would ever happen, said Chris Davison, who works at the ... More » »

Look! It’s Libby and Roberta at Gallery Joe

Click To Play   This episode from our ongoing series of gallery visits takes us to the Gallery Joe for the narrative works of Rob Matthews and Marilyn Holsing. Our video guru David Kessler captured it all and makes the magic happen. Here’s a link to David’s popular Shadow World videos. And here’s a link to the archive of all the Look! episodes.

Jeff Koons and Hot Air — A Marriage Made in Heaven

Jeff Koons’ Rabbit in yesterday’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times From the It’s a Miracle! Department: Jeff Koons‘ Rabbit (1986) a stainless steel sculpture based on a mylar balloon was resurrected and transformsed into its original mylar state in yesterday’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The new, 50-ft. tall Koons piece is owned by Macy’s. Read Roberta Smith’s short article.

Judith Schaechter talks, Part 2

This is part 2 of a two-part article about our studio visit with artist Judith Schaechter. Read Part 1. Judith Schaechter’s computer, with files in Photoshop that store her drawings of heads and bodies for her figures. While at the computer Judith was demonstrating to us how she mixed and matched heads and bodies on her figures. It was a little like paper dolls swapping clothing and a little like low tech animation. Roberta said “You should animate your works.” And Judith said, “Have you seen my animations?” She proceeded to show us two animations she produced, one of which ... More » »

Judith Schaechter talks computers, cats, and irreverent stained glass

[This is part 1 of a two part story.] Judith Schaechter with one of her five cats in her South Philly house. We had lunch with one of contemporary art’s heavy hitters the other day and she made us quiche. Judith Schaechter had just come home from a driving lesson during which her driving instructor was pumping her for information about how to be an artist while she was on Delaware Avenue trying to remember how to brake and steer. Meanwhile, back at home, she tossed the lunch on the table as if it was nothing and started talking. Two ... More » »

ALERT! THE MEDIA! It’s Bonnie Brenda Scott at Nexus

Installation detail from ALERT! THE MEDIA!, by Bonnie Brenda Scott You want video. There’s video.You want drawing. There’s drawing.You want concept. It’s there too. Army of the TV-headed army It’s Bonnie Brenda Scott’s installation ALERT! THE MEDIA! at Nexus. She’s one of three in the current new member show, and she practically takes over the gallery with her energy, her vision and her bold pop colors and wheat-paste/grafitti aesthetic. Eyes ‘r’ us She’s got video projected onto cloth, and videos on monitors. All the videos have eyes. One, 20, 100, I don’t know how many, static, moving, turning into whirlpools ... More » »

Weekly Update – Facts and Fantasies at Moore

This week’s Weekly has my review of Facts Fantasies and Fictions at the Galleries at Moore. Below is the copy with some pictures. More photos at flickr.Paint MisbehavingMoore’s narrative art show is slippery and subversive. Sarah McEneaney, looking regal, in a new work at Moore College’s Facts, Fantasies and Fictions. Narrative art takes a well deserved bow in “Facts, Fantasies and Fictions” at the Galleries at Moore. The paintings by Sarah McEneaney and Christian Curiel, and video art by Matthew Suib, are three stops on a visual merry-go-round where human life is presented against lush landscapes or forlorn atmospheric wastelands. ... More » »

Art in D.C.

The Sublime Turner and Contemporary Fibre Art J.M.W.Turner The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834 (1835)Philadelphia Museum of Art Billed as the largest Turner exhibition ever seen in the U.S., the retrospective currently at the National Gallery of Art is a joy even for those who know his work well (through January 6, 2008, www.nga.gov; Philadelphia viewers will have a second chance, after its Dallas venue, when the exhibition travels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art June 24 – Sept.21,www.metmuseum.org). Turner’s work is always fresh, and this wonderful selection of 146 oils and works on ... More » »

High Art, Cheap Beer and Regionalism

Annette Monnier, one-fifth director of Copy Gallery and one-sixth founder of the now defunct Black Floor Gallery, will be writing on artblog from time to time, by way of introduction her first post is on the relationship between place, art, and cheap beer. Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) Before I moved to Philadelphia I thought of PBR as the beer in the David Lynch movie, Blue Velvet, it was somewhat unusual and hard to find and even a little bit avant garde. “The Hard to find” part of that idea was quickly displaced upon arrival in Philly. One of the first ... More » »

Me, my murray and I

I forgot to blurt out that my very own picture of Chicago’s tall buildings, with Jaume Plensa’s fountain and wet people in the foreground, is splashed across the front of today’s Travel Section in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Murray wrote the wonderful story in there about our trip. I just got a note from a friend saying the story brought tears to her eyes (Murray’s specialty), and that reminded me to post this.The picture looks great blown up huge in the paper. I had no idea!!